Have you been thinking about trying to detox? One of the biggest reasons that people look to detox involves toxins. We’re all exposed to an abundance of toxins on a regular basis and your body can find it difficult to deal with them. This can affect many aspects of your health and wellbeing.
Toxins can build up in your body and be stored in tissues and cells. Incorporating daily detox habits into your life help your body to reduce your toxic burden and help your body to function at its best.
Drink plenty of water
Water helps to flush waste products out of your body. Starting the day with 16-32 ounces of water encourages your body to liberate toxins and eliminate them from the body.
Add some fresh squeezed lemon and raw apple cider vinegar to warm water to help stimulate your liver and colon. Drink this before you have your morning coffee.
Mix things up a bit with herbal teas. These also help you to stay hydrated and flush toxins. Some herbal teas are particularly good for detoxing, especially nettle and dandelion.
Load up on veggies (and fiber)
Vegetables are a great choice for detoxing, especially beets, kale, spinach and cilantro. If you struggle to get plenty in your diet, try making a veggie smoothie or juice. Adding apple, carrot and ginger helps to make it taste delicious - perfect even if you’re not a big fan of greens!
It’ll also aid your digestion and support regular bowel movements to remove waste products from your body. This is super important as toxins can build up in your digestive tract if you’re not eliminating regularly.
This can make you feel sluggish, tired and generally not your best. Getting plenty of fiber means that everything moves through your system more quickly. Veggies and fruits aside, good fiber sources include legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains.
A word of caution here when picking veggies (and fruits!): go organic as much as you can. This is particularly true for the “Dirty Dozen”, which are more likely to have pesticides and preservatives build up on them.
If you’re not eating organic varieties of these, the toxins are passed onto you. The Dirty Dozen for 2020 included strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery, potato and hot peppers. If your budget doesn’t stretch to buying organic across the board, make these the priority.
There is also a Clean Fifteen group, which have fewer pesticides on average. Avocado and sweet corn top this group, and other fruits and veggies with low pesticide residue include pineapple, onions, papaya, frozen sweet peas, eggplant, asparagus, cauliflower, cantaloupe, broccoli, mushrooms, cabbage, honeydew melon and kiwi.
Cut back on sugar
Sugar is essentially a toxin and as most of us eat far too much of it, it’s having a big effect on health and wellbeing. Making the decision to detox from sugar is a definite must-do when you’re looking to detox.
It’s not easy but you’ll likely feel a whole lot better! I offer a 30 day program to crush your sugar addiction.
Eating plenty of clean protein and healthy is a key part of a sugar detox. Non starchy veggies are also essential.
Reduce stress
When you’re stressed, your body isn’t working as efficiently as it could be and that’s not great news for detox. Being able to manage stress more effectively helps your body to get rid of toxins more easily.
Meditation, mindfulness and journaling are just a few of the tactics that will help to keep emotional toxins to a minimum.
Exercise regularly
Exercise helps to boost your circulation and support your lymph system. Working up a sweat helps to release toxins and is also a good move for better digestion.
Yoga can serve a dual purpose in your exercise routine as it aids meditation, relaxation and stress relief. These are all important for detoxing.
Making time to stretch throughout the day is also a great move. This gets blood moving and gives a quick and easy energy boost. Try to stretch for around 5 minutes out of every hour, where possible.
Get plenty of sleep
A good night’s sleep is super important for helping your body to reset itself and that extends to detoxing too. You’re also more likely to make poor food choices when you’re sleep deprived and that can mean more toxins.
Aim to get a solid 8 hours every night. That is 8 hours at a minimum.
Try deep tissue massage
Because toxins can build up in tissues, deep tissue massages can help to get rid of them. Massage helps to stimulate the lymphatic system which a key component in the drainage chain for liberating toxins.
Brush your skin
Gently brushing the skin also helps to stimulate the lymphatic system to clear out waste. It boosts circulation and aids detoxification.
This is a fantastic way to detoxify the skin and get rid of dead skins cells, leaving your skin feeling great. If you don’t have a dry brush, they are readily available at any health food store or online.
Use it to brush your skin gently, starting with your feet and moving up toward your heart. The process goes feet, legs, abdomen, arms, and finally chest. You can do this daily or a few times per week.
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